[2176] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Low end users
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Richard Mandelbaum)
Wed Jan 29 11:20:23 1992
To: perry@mcl.unisys.com (Dennis Perry)
Cc: dcrocker@mordor.stanford.edu, rma@tsar.cc.rochester.edu,
In-Reply-To: Your message of Wed, 29 Jan 92 10:18:26 -0500.
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 92 10:48:24 -0500
From: Richard Mandelbaum <rma@tsar.cc.rochester.edu>
Dennis, I don't quite understand the import of your literary
allusion but I agree with what you said. The primary reason
to support disributed computing is that it is the best tool for
a great many,though not all jobs. Going to distributed computing
as "the only way to go" because it will lead to a 90% reduction
in costs. sentiments I have heard more than once is just
foolishness. One gains very little by fooling oneself.
My support costs were not meant to grind any ax, but simply noute that
if one wants to really be honest one should at least look at all
the factors. It was not an argument to "not support low end users"
or maintain dinosaurs for the sake of old time sake and "they really
are cheaper after all"
____________________
Support costs are interesting exercises in the old saying that "figure
s
don't lie, but liers figure". We did a study once at Los Alamos when
I
was there which showed that it was more expensive to support distribut
ed
computing when all the costs were accounted for in the same way that
they are accounted for in the computer center. Never the less, we sup
ported
distributed computing because of other issues, not support cost issues
.
dennis
